Floods swamp roads after heavy rainfall

Several outages caused by thunderstorms, which are giving way to a cold front

Bryan Fitzgeral, Times Union

By Bryan Fitzgerald

Updated 6:53 am, Friday, September 13, 2013

A driver turns around and heads away from a flooded section of Route 9 just north of Watervliet Shaker Road Thursday afternoon, Sept. 12, 2013, in Latham, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A driver turns around and heads away from a flooded section of...

A driver turns around and heads away from a section of Route 9 just north of Watervliet Shaker Road Thursday afternoon, Sept. 12, 2013, in Latham, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A driver turns around and heads away from a section of Route 9 just...

A driver looks out of his vehicle which stalled in floodwaters on a section of Route 9 just north of Watervliet Shaker Road Thursday afternoon, Sept. 12, 2013, in Latham, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

A driver looks out of his vehicle which stalled in floodwaters on a...

The Capital Region was drenched by a line of thunderstorms that swept across the area Thursday afternoon, causing low-lying streets to flood in several communities.

Traffic was slowed throughout the area as the water rose. A number of streets were closed by the flooding, including several on the University at Albany's uptown campus.

The worst of the storms came through between 2 and 4 p.m. Downpours were reported in central Saratoga County and northern Albany and Rensselaer counties.

A thunderstorm packing heavy rains made its way through the Albany area around 2:30 p.m.

Thursday's storm knocked down trees around the area and also knocked out power to about 4,600 homes and businesses at one point, said Patrick Stella, a spokesman for National Grid. Most of those outages were in Glenville (2,258) Niskayuna (1,578) and Clifton Park (555), according to National Grid's website.

Flooding was reported on roads in Colonie, Troy and Guilderland Thursday afternoon.

In Latham, the portion of Route 9 that runs under and near the Latham Circle, from roughly Kunker Avenue to Latham Farms, was closed at 3 p.m. Other areas closed for a time included a section of Central Avenue at the Albany-Colonie line and Route 20 (Western Avenue) around Fuller Road.

Thursday's storms came just as National Grid was busy restoring power to more than 2,000 customers in Warren and Washington counties that lost power Wednesday night during intense storms. As of 2:45 p.m., just over 1,100 customers in those areas were still without power.

About 200 customers, mostly in Rensselaer County, were without power later Thursday evening

Stella said National Grid, which has extra crews on hand for the storms, should have most customers' power restored by late Thursday night.

The storms come as a cold front is making its way toward the Capital Region, ushering in much cooler temperatures than the area has seen in recent days.

Wednesday's high was 93 in Albany, five degrees lower than the record high and 23 degrees above the normal high for the date, according to weather service data.

Highs Friday and throughout the weekend aren't expected to climb out of the mid to high 60s. The chance of rain for the day is about 30 percent.

The chance of rain for Saturday and Sunday is close to zero, with the temperature Saturday expected to be about 64 for the high. Sunday's high will be about 70 degrees and it should be mostly cloudy.